It's posts like this one that make me glad I work at a gigantic teaching facility. The place is crawling with residents, and on the medicine floors, crawling with hospitalists, even at night. Everything (usually) moves fast; you call for help, it starts coming out of the woodwork. (Unless the team gets lost on the way to the call, because we are that huge - it happened to me on the very first code I ever called - funny in hindsight, not at the time!) We have the number for our RRT posted in patient rooms, so *anyone* can call, even a family member. It does not get overused at all. I would say there are more overhead pages for codes than for RRT. But we all know about it, it's a great ace up your sleeve.

OP, I don't remember now if you did suggest rapid response to the other nurse, but if not, there is nothing at all wrong with doing that, even if that nurse is more experienced and you are new. If it were me I would think, "Would I call RRT if this were my patient?" If so, then I would be strong with the language: "Why don't I call a rapid response for you? Here, you go back in with the patient, I'll make the call." Just because another nurse is more experienced than you are doesn't mean he or she doesn't sometimes second-guess themselves. Maybe it was on her mind and just knowing it was on your mind, too, would have been enough for her to go ahead and do it.

And yes, as some have noted there are no guarantees that calling a rapid response would have improved her outcome, but the whole point of having a rapid response program is to increase the chances of improving a patient's outcome, so probably, it would have! At least the patient would have sooner been on the radar screen of those who give a higher level of care. You were thinking along the right lines, and the next time it comes up, you'll have a better idea of how you'd like to handle it. That's called "gaining experience."

What about becoming a librarian at the medical facility where you work? If it's a big place, you never know what they have available. Or at a medical school? Something where you could use the experience and expertise you've gained in the last four years. Have you thought about teaching? If what you want to be is a librarian, by all means pursue it! But It's more time out for school, more expenses, more hard work for another degree, when maybe you haven't exhausted the possiblities that you have open to you with your current education. There are an awful lot of "nurse" positions that don't involve direct patient care, if that's what's getting you down. Maybe a switch to something like perinatal care would be enough of a change. You never know!

Wow! I guess I shouldn't want what everyone doesn't miss! I have been OUT of Acute Care for 18 years-raised my kids then got divorced and had to take an RN Recertification Course to get my license back. Took a job doing telephone triage the last 3 years but have such a desire to get back INTO Acute Care. I am so sick of sitting on my butt talking and typing all day long! I THINK I miss Acute Care, but do you think I have simply forgotten what it really was like??? Was it less ACUTE 20 years ago? I know patients were not as sick as they are now and we even had patients who were admitted for 'tests' back then. I have interviewed with Nursing Recruters and they sort of laugh at me-being 53 and WANTING to go back into Acute Care?! Can anyone remind me what I shouldn't be missing???? Deb

Nursing has changed tremendously in the last 20 years. The medications are newer and more complex, and patients are sicker than ever before because they are living longer with more diseases, thanks to medical advances. I left acute care 6 months ago but still pick up shifts occasionally. It's not unusual for me to have 4 out of 5 or 5 out of 5 patients unable to get up out of bed on their own, with at least 2 who need to be turned Q2H. That's just a taste of how the acuity has of patients has degraded. I have a friend who was an acute care nurse for a couple of years about 40 years ago before going into decades of school nursing and I have to bite my tongue until it bleeds every time she tells me about how they used to have 8 patients apiece and they gave baths and backrubs to every one of the them every day! Good for you! You wouldn't last an hour with the patients I have these days! The work is a lot harder, the responsibility is greater (we really are expected to be MDs when there is none around), and the charting duties are off the hook. There are plenty of areas of nursing to get back into; acute care is just about the hardest (and most thankless) to do.